Our Values & Mission

Who we are (and commit to being) as an organization and community

Generous

We commit to adopting a posture of humility, seeking first to understand, then to be understood. We deeply and charitably engage across our ideological divides and celebrate our shared values as well as our differences. We cultivate protected spaces for all, not comfortable spaces for some.

Genuine

We commit to safeguarding the dignity of every story and celebrating the integrity it takes to make one’s true self fully known. We recognize our shared humanity, never hiding ourselves behind a talking point, nor the other behind an ‘issue.’

Transformative

We commit to exploring and articulating new expressions of peace and human flourishing. We believe in the creative nature of community as a force for good and wellspring for growth.

DIVERSE

We commit to elevating the perspectives of the marginalized and amplifying minority voices, not just once a year (e.g. Transgender Day of Remembrance, Black History Month, World AIDS Day, etc.), but through an organizational culture of equality and education.

Our Mission & Vision

We are much more interested in the ethic of inclusivity as a practice than as an ideological abstraction. We seek not only to create and sustain healthy, diverse communities within our walls, but also to formalize a methodology of inclusivity that can be taught to communities of faith and agents of change throughout the world.

We invite people of all experiences, perspectives and identities to a common table, setting aside power differentials in favor of equity and true community. In all our work, we seek to oppose and offer a compelling antidote to shame, which we believe to be an inherently destructive force.

Center for Inclusivity exists to connect the individuals behind every "issue", giving social embodiment and structure to the practice of empathy.

OUR MISSION: To foster healing communities among people of all faiths, genders, and sexual orientations with an ethic of inclusion that is locally embodied, sacredly held and widely replicable.

OUR VISION: To see Chicago model a culture of LGBTQ+ inclusivity that becomes the norm in every family and faith community.

Some Quotes that inspire our work:

"We are interested in love and inclusion as a tool of revolutionary change, right? And the idea is simply, if we drop all our preconceived notions about how somebody is supposed to be -- in their body, in their gender, in their skin -- if we take the intentional steps to unlearn these deep-seated biases and create space for people to be self-determined, and embrace who they are, then we will definitely create a better world than the one we were born into."

— Tiq Milan

"From my point of view, no label, no slogan, no party, no skin color, and indeed no religion is more important than the human being.”

— James Baldwin

"You don't think your way into a new kind of living. You live your way into a new kind of thinking."

— Henri Nouwen

"...our human bonds and the fires in our guts that motivate us to love each other deeply in light of our deepest differences will be our saving grace."

— Robyn Henderson-Espinoza, Ph.D.

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

— Maya Angelou

"Shame is a social concept — it happens between people — it also heals best between people. A social wound needs a social balm, & empathy is that balm."

— Brené Brown, Ph.D., from Daring Greatly

"You can't claim allyship. You have to earn it."

— Hoda Katebi

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